Daughter of Spring
by monkeymanda22
Summary: Sixteen year old, Sarah is arrested on the streets of Manhattan and is soon whisked off to Camp Half Blood. She has a connection to a prophecy involving a missing Goddess, because that is what any sophomore wants with their summer. Being sent to camp for the first time in their life and finding out that their mom is an Olympian.


Sarah looked side to side, this was not good. A police interrogation room was the absolute worst place she could be right now and she had been to some pretty bad places. A police officer couldn't help her, especially not with that thing after her. All Sarah could think of were those eyes, the pure evil and hatred that they held was not something easily forgotten. She had been trying to stop it and fight it to protect all those oblivious people but it got away and she got arrested. Sarah felt her eyes well up again, what if it killed someone all because she had to freak out and end up here. The door opened on the other side of the room and Sarah glanced at the large burly officer who moved toward the chair before her.

"Sir, please you have to help all those people. It is going to kill them, I'm telling the truth. I can help, it wants me but it will kill whoever it takes to get me." She was hysterical now; it would not be her fault for a massacre.

"Stay calm miss. Now I'm going to be asking you some questions so we can get your story straight. That okay with you?" She nodded feebly and looked at the cold metal desk in front of her. Maybe the cop would believe her, but it was highly unlikely for him to take her the girl crying about a monster seriously. She also was arrested while screaming wielding a Great Sword on the streets of Manhattan. Yeah, a cop was totally not going to believe her she might as well try to explain as best as she could. He would get a fun story to tell his friends afterwards too.

"How did you come to possess the uh sword?"

The sword, she didn't even really know where it came from but it was useful when it did appear.  
"Well you see I'm not sure. It just kind of appeared when the monster came toward me." He smirked, great now he probably thinks that I'm some loony bin escapee.

"Can you describe this monster?"

"It looked like a lion, but also a goat. It was really strange like a monster that made no sense it had too many parts." He scratched his head and wrote something down on a notepad.

"It also breathed fire." Sarah added thinking of the monster again and began to get nervous.  
"So you claim that you were using this weapon to fight a lion-goat monster that could breathe fire on Central Park West. Where do you live miss?"

"I go to the St. Anthony's School for Teens on the Upper West Side," Sarah fumbled through the words and knew that if she had made any progress it was all gone now. She went to a school for kids who had issues, the ones who liked to steal things, and it was the kind of school that bad kids went. The ones with police records and she went to school with all of them.

"That explains it," the man said standing up and heading toward the door. "I might was well call up old Mrs. Fell again. Your classmates tend to wind up in here often, but your case is probably the most interesting."

"But I'm telling the truth there is a fire breathing lion-goat monster in Central Park and it is trying to kill me."

"I'll talk to Mrs. Fell and she can help get you set up with a rehab clinic. I don't know what kind of things you are doing but they are illegal and since this is your first time here I'm going to set you up with attending rehabilitation facility." Sarah started crying again and looked widely around the room.

"That won't be necessary,' a voice said as the door to the room opened and both Sarah and the police officer looked at it surprised. A tall man entered the room he was so pale he looked almost see through and had long shoulder length black hair and something about him seemed so vaguely familiar to Sarah.

"Excuse me sir you can't be in here," the cop said and Sarah just stared at him shocked.

"Actually I can, I'm here to pick up my step-daughter. Is that the right term? Who even knows our family little Sarah is way too complicated for even I to understand. Don't think I am doing this because I like you, because I don't but your mother needed me to save you. So here I am, now come along I've got to take you to camp."

"Sir you can't just take her, she has to go back to school. I don't even know your name." The officer scrambled between Sarah and the tall man. Sarah looked intently at the man who claimed to be her step-father, but it made her upset. She thought of her actual father who was off living in Portland with is young girlfriend who hated Sarah. And now apparently she had a step-father who hated her too and she had never even met the guy.

"Just call me Mr. H and don't think I'm not onto you. Please all monsters like you should be dead not working here. I should know I tend to like you locked up."

"No you can't be. She's mine," the officer who now didn't exactly look like a police officer anymore but another type of a monster. If this day could actually get any stranger it just did.

"Um, no I'm not," Sarah replied pushing past the large police officer/giant toward the man who called himself Mr. H. "So why don't you like me exactly?" She stood next to the tall man with black hair and felt a weight in her pocket. Had he put something in there for her? Gifts from strange men should always be taken with caution, even if they claim to be your step-father.

"Your mother is my wife and you are not my child, get it Sarah? Now pull out your sword and help me kill this giant. Then I can take you to camp and we can figure out what happened." Sarah stared at the man; this was all way too confusing.

"I don't have that sword anymore; they took it when I was arrested. And I don't go to camp that is for little kids." Mr. H patted his pocket and faced the giant. Sarah felt around in her pocket and pulled out an oddly heavy hair clip. "I don't have sword in here," replied but as she spoke the hair clip transformed into the Great Sword she had used earlier. Yeah today was probably the strangest day of her entire life. "Holy cow! What is going on?"

Because apparently those are the words that describe the moment when a hair clip turns into a sword before your eyes and a police officer has turned into a monster and a man claims to be your step father all after you had been arrested.

"Explain later, fight now." Mr. H said as he wielded his own sword against the monster and Sarah slid up beside him trying to take down the giant. After a couple of very clumsy attempts by Sarah, Mr. H finally sliced quickly and the monster dissolved.

"What the heck was that?"

"A giant, not sure which one but it is strange for a giant to undergo all of that just to get you. Have you done anything special recently?"

"Um, I fought a fire breathing lion/goat in Central Park which got me arrested, is that special?" Sarah looked over at Mr. H who was laughing at her.

"A chimera in Central Park, that's got to be causing some issues. But I can't deal with that now; I have to get you to camp."

"Mr. H, can you please tell me why I am being kidnapped and brought to a camp?" Sarah stared at him but he was adjusting his sword back onto his belt and it instantly shrunk into a little belt buckle.

"Sarah darling you are a demigod, now it's time to get going," he proceeded out of the interrogation room and Sarah stood there for a moment. A demigod, like half of a god, like an ancient entity. Oh lord, this was strange like super strange.

"Come along, I have to get you to Long Island before another monster decides that you are lunch."

"Long Island? Really you are kidnapping me and taking me to Long Island. Are you going to like kill me or something? Why do you give me serial killer vibes?"

"Please Sarah do I look like someone who lives in Long Island. I'm from LA and as for the serial killer aspect. Chiron or your half-brother and my nephew can explain it."

"Wait who? Are you sure I am what you say I am because I'm really just average. I mean I wasn't sent to my school for committing a crime, it was in my old neighborhood and my dad's new girlfriend wanted to move to Portland and she didn't like me and I didn't like Portland. It's simple really; I'm not all the special."

"Your father is quite rude, going after my wife."

"Actually, Mr. H my dad always told me that my mom was his girlfriend in high school. It kind of explains why he has been raising me since he was seventeen."

"So that's where she was pretending to be a teenager during those trips from our home. Quite clever really, but so immature of her." Mr. H smiled at Sarah and shook his head before his face returned to a scowl.

"Can I assume that you aren't kidnapping me because I would really rather not be kidnapped," Sarah glanced at him again and he rolled his eyes. "Might as well, my roommate did threaten to flay me when she next saw me."

"Oh please do tell. I love a good flaying story," Mr. H strolled through the police department his black cape swaying while he moved. Sarah hurried to catch up with him, this guy was strange but he was her step-father and had a lot to say about her family.

"Well she can't exactly flay me if I go with you," Sarah retorted and walked next to Mr. H his cape seemed to add to his imposing, frightening demeanor.

"What a pity," he sighed and weaved through the precinct like he was the commissioner and no one questioned their prescience. "You look so confused, don't worry it will all be explained to you later." Sarah just stared at all the officers who just continued their daily work ignoring her; the girl who was arrested for possession of a sword only an hour before. How had everything changed so quickly and what on earth was this camp that Mr. H kept talking about. And since when was she Sarah Gilwit a Demigod.

She thought that the day couldn't get any stranger but when she walked outside she was greeted with a stagecoach. Not just any ordinary stagecoach, this one was pulled by what looked like ghosts of horses. Yeah, she must be on drugs or something.

"Ah there is our ride," Mr. H said smiling and held out his hand to help Sarah into the vehicle.

"We are taking this on the Long Island Expressway?" Sarah asked incredulously as she leaned back on the plush red cushions.

"You have so much to learn," he said and suddenly the coach began to move at a rapid pace. Yeah, she had a lot that she needed to learn and hopefully it would come soon.

Around two hours later and no questions answered Mr. H called for the coach to stop. Sarah had gotten comfortable leaning on the side staring out the window. None of the cars on the highway noticed their coach zipping through the traffic. She was worried about all of this, only this morning was she the average girl living alone in New York City and now she had a mom and a step-dad.

"Sarah you have to walk from here," Mr. H spoke moving in the carriage. "I can't come with you but here take this letter it will explain your situation to my nephew. The camp is just over that hill past the pine tree, a camper will probably find you. Don't tell them about me; just say that the chimera chased you here. Wait more believable if you call it the fire breathing lion-goat."

"Um, okay. Why can't I tell them the truth?" Sarah stepped down from the coach and looked at Mr. H through the window.

"Obviously, I'm not supposed to be helping you but I like to break the rules." Mr. H laughed leering out the window and the coach began to speed off again.

Okay so she was supposed to trek over this hill holding a suitcase full of stuff and find some camp where things would be explained to her. Except she couldn't tell them what she already knew, gosh this was confusing. Maybe this was all just some bad dream and she wake up any minute. If that was true then she could just stop walking and sit down and wait for herself to wake up. Or she could keep going and see what her imagination has to offer.

This was already really elaborate dream anyway so continuing might just be way more fun. So Sarah walked on up the hill, it was painful. She was out of shape because lacrosse season ended and she stopped running 5 miles every day, but hills always hurt so maybe she was just having a very realistic dream. The top of the hill was in sight now a pine tree stood alone at the peak; she stood there and gasped as she looked down.

There was an actual camp just like Mr. H said and it was gorgeous. She could see buildings and the Sound and everything just looked beautiful. Sarah walked down the slope of the hill and toward one of the buildings. As she got closer Sarah began to notice kids milling around these places.  
"Oh my gods," Sarah heard a squeal and noticed one of the kids running toward her. It was a girl around her age; she had dark hair tied in a braid that bounced as she ran and a wicked looking smile. "You are a new kid. Like how old are you? I thought that we got all the half-bloods before they turned thirteen so they can be claimed."

"I'm Sarah and uh I'm sixteen."

"No way. Have you been claimed? OMG, I have to take you to Chiron and Mr. D," the girl grabbed her hand and began to pull her further down the hill. People were staring at them likely caused by the other girl's shouts of, "make way, mysterious new camper coming through." Sarah felt uncomfortable at all the attention; she tried to avoid eye contact with any of the kids who were watching her. Waking up now would be nice, because embarrassment in this dream felt far too real.

"Where did you find her Izzy?" A boy asked as he ran alongside the girl with braid holding a bow used for archery.

"She was standing at the top of Half Blood Hill and I was not trailing a nymph or anything of that manner," the girl, Izzy added the second bit hesitantly. Sarah was utterly confused; Mr. H said nothing about nymphs or Half Blood Hill.

"Really, she's old. What is she doing here?" The boy was staring at her now and it made her very uncomfortable. Had she been back home in the city and saw him Sarah would have likely thought him very cute and moved on, but she wasn't back home and the kid was more than just very cute he was downright attractive. With his longish light brown hair and dark brown eyes, he looked like the epitome of the cute guy in every single movie made about high school not to mention the muscles as well. No, stop staring at the kid, focus and try to find out what on earth is going on.

"I don't know, you dork," Izzy hit the boy with her free hand. "I'm taking her to the Big House now to see what is going on."

"Why do you enjoy acting like we are still kids? It has been years Izzy and we are both Head Counselors," the boy sighed and walked with the girl. They seemed to be good friends from what Sarah could tell, it would be quite awkward if they were dating and Sarah had just spent the past few minutes asserting how attractive he was.

"Now Terrence if I randomly became mature nobody would respect me and we can't have that. Can you please stop stalking me and the new girl, Sarah right?" The two both stopped and looked at Sarah again.

"Uh, yeah," she replied quickly before they continued to walk again toward what Izzy called the Big House.

"I'm coming with you guys, after all Sarah and I are buds now right." The boy, Terrence smiled at her and Sarah looked down trying not to blush.

"Quit it Terrence, just because she is like gorgeous doesn't mean you can hit on her. That is disrespectful and plain rude."

"Do you think you are an Aphrodite girl? I don't think so, they are usually very vain and you seem shy," the boy asked Sarah.

"I don't know." Was Aphrodite Mr. H's wife? Sarah tried to remember her mythology the gods and who they were married to and such.

"Oops sorry forgot you were new. Maybe a Demeter, they are usually pretty and don't talk much."

"Actually I talk a lot, but um I'm way confused about what is going on," Sarah spoke and looked at the two kids.

"Sorry, forgot again." Terrence spoke and Izzy smiled at Sarah.

"He is such a dork. This is the Big House. You two wait out here while I go get Mr. D and Chiron," Izzy paused quickly and stared at Sarah and Terrence. "Sarah, if he hits on you again let me know and I will totally tie him to a boat and send him off into the ocean forever." Sarah smiled at her and glared at Terrence before going into the cabin.

"Uh thank," Sarah smiled at her.

"So I'm kind of hoping that you are a Demeter girl because I really would rather you not be my sister for reasons."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment because it is kind of offensive?" Sarah turned to Terrence and laughed at his surprised expression. "You are not used to being turned down, are you?"

"You've got some spunk, maybe an Ares."

"Can you please stop guessing? It is stressing me out," Sarah sighed and leaned against the building. She wished that Izzy would come out with those people so she could get some answers.

"Sorry, it's just been a long time since we got a new camper who was our age that we haven't known as a 10 year old. I'm Terrence, but I prefer to be called Terry. Izzy just doesn't respect my wishes so you can ignore her insisting that I am not Terry." The boy seemed less pompous and he smiled at her, it was likely an act she wasn't stupid after all.

"Isabelle I don't think we have to rush. And there is no need to yell," a male voice said from behind Sarah and she jumped away from the cabin while Terry snickered. Sarah stared at the door and watched as a man began to walk out. Except he wasn't a man, well part of him was and the other part was like a horse. Okay did she fall down a staircase and was having really extreme hallucinations because her day just kept getting stranger.

"Sarah, will you please come with me inside? Isabelle you should go ready up a bunk in your cabin just in case she doesn't get claimed today," the man-horse guy said. Sarah tried to remember he mythology, if she remembered correctly that would make this guy a centaur.

"On it sir. Terrence we must embark on a journey to find sheets. Or well I have to steal sheets from your cabin," the girl Izzy ran off toward the other cabins and Terry laughed following her at a much slower pace.

"See you later Sarah," he smiled at Sarah and winked, she could feel her cheeks flush bright red. Her eyes looked at the floor awaiting a normal shade to return to her face and then looked up at the centaur again.

"I'm Chiron; I'd very much like to hear the story of how you came to get here." He gestured for her to enter the large cabin and Sarah carefully walked in.

"You must be aware that your arrival here is something that is quite strange," he looked at Sarah who nodded. "Most of our campers tend to arrive at much younger ages; it is surprising that you have lasted this long without any monsters attacking you."

"Well I was attacked today by a fire breathing lion-goat, it umm chased me here."

"You ran here from Manhattan being chased by a chimera?" Chiron looked at her suspiciously.

"I have a letter that is supposed to explain this stuff to someone's nephew or something," Sarah pulled the note out of her pocket. She handed the folded paper to Chiron and leaned back in her chair trying to take in the room. There were artifacts all over the wall, things that looked as if they came from movie sets about like warriors and gladiators not at a camp. Distracting her from her scanning of the room was Chiron who nodded his head and did that thing where teachers just say "ah" and continue reading.

"Well I should probably tell Isabelle to stop setting you up a bunk in her cabin. After all according to this you are already claimed, we should ready up cabin 21. You are the first child of Persephone that we've ever had be claimed here, though it comes at such a strange time." Chiron looked at Sarah carefully. Her mom was Persephone, the goddess of the spring and the underworld and Sarah was her only known child.

"Is that what it says? What else is in the letter? Because I am really unsure of what to say," Sarah asked eagerly as she sat on the edge of her chair.

"Just some information for myself that you don't need to concern yourself with and it also says that you shouldn't go around telling people that Hades himself brought you directly here after rescuing you from a giant." Chiron smiled at her and looked out one of the windows. "I'm going to have one of our head counselor's take you to your cabin. Nick, will explain to you a lot of the Camp Half-Blood rules."

"Okay, why can't you explain this to me," Sarah stood up now and watched Chiron move through the room. All she wanted was a single person to sit her down and explain what on earth was going on with her life.

"Nick will do that, I have some things to do. He is the head of the Athena cabin and is good friends with Isabelle and Terry who you met earlier but doesn't quite enjoy gossiping as much as them. I wouldn't be surprised if by now the entire camp knows your name with those two being the first ones you met." Chiron looked out the window and called for the Nick kid.

A tall boy with dark hair walked into the house and smiled a hello to Chiron before turning to her. Sarah gave him a quick once over, very intellectual looking which differed from Izzy and Terry before who wore their orange t-shirts plainly this Nick kid required a cardigan even though it was June.

"You must be Sarah; Izzy just told me all about how she found you at the top of the hill. There were some obvious embellishments to her story. So what cabin am I taking her to Chiron, 11?" Nick stood confidently at the doorway hands in his pockets; obviously out of the three campers she had met Nick had to be the most responsible.

"Actually cabin 21," Sarah spoke up instead of letting Chiron talk for her. "You are Nick right? What cabin number are you in?" She didn't leave time for him to react to her announcement about her cabin number but there was an obvious display of shock on his face.

"Yeah, I'm in Athena it is cabin 6. I'm the head counselor of my cabin and since you are the only one in Persephone then I guess that makes you a head counselor too. I'll show you the way to your cabin," Nick held out his hand in one of those chivalrous ways signaling for her to leave. "Do you want me to come by after Chiron to discuss that umm thing?" Sarah glanced over her shoulder to see the centaur nod his head and for some reason she felt like that thing that Nick was referring to involved her.

"So, before you take me to my cabin can you show me where everything is here? If I'm going to be staying I'd really rather not bring any more attention to myself than there already is." Sarah turned to Nick who smiled and laughed.

"Sorry again about Izzy and Terry earlier. They are easily excited, but you can't really blame them. We haven't had a proper new kid in our age group since like four years ago. Though the three of us have been here since we were eight," Nick spoke calmly. "They are my best friends and although we are all really different it works. People especially the Ares cabin like to make fun of me and they are both there for me. For Izzy she is the only girl in her cabin and is the leader so she has difficulties with earning respect. Terry's issues are kind of difficult to explain, but he is in Apollo and they are the most populous cabin so he kind of questions his dad. And we all have issues. Heck this place should be called Camp Half-Blood for kids whose parents royally screwed them up."

"Thanks, very encouraging for a new camper to hear," Sarah added in sarcastically, but she was worried. After all she already had issues with her dad who up and left her when he moved to Portland and now that she finally had a mom it seemed highly likely that she was going to have issues with her too.

"I'm sorry, I tend to overanalyze things. Kind of a side effect of being the son of the goddess of wisdom," Nick looked away kind of embarrassed, his parental situation seemed like a touchy subject so Sarah ignored it. "So uh that's the training yard. We practice archery, sword fighting and other heroic battle weapons there. Usually it is a counselor that helps with those, Chiron likes to come by and do that too. I don't run those training sessions, Izzy and one of her brother's typically do sword fighting lessons. She is probably the best with a sword in the entire camp. Anyway over there are some more training spaces. The archery range was back near where you came into the camp; Apollo cabin typically does those sessions. My cabin does lessons in Ancient Greek and Mythology, I like to run the lessons outside because most campers tend to think they are quite dull and being locked up inside doesn't help with that."

"There are Ancient Greek lessons here?" Sarah paused in her walking and looked excitedly at Nick. "I was taking courses at Columbia in Ancient Greek, my teachers at school said I was highly gifted and recommended that I take college level courses."

"All half-bloods are programmed to understand Ancient Greek it is why we are all dyslexic," Nick responded with a smile. "We all also have ADHD because our natural state is preparing for combat. But did you seriously take Greek at Columbia because they have the best classics department in the country."

"Yeah, I tried Latin too but I just can't seem to get the hang of it. You wouldn't believe how amazing it is though there. I was on my way back from a class when the monster attacked me," Sarah had been so excited there was someone who loved learning Greek like she did here, but there was no way she could go back there and continue in her studies.

"Latin doesn't come as easy to us demigods, but I've been working on it. We should translate together sometime." Nick looked at her and she nodded.

"The girl hasn't even been here an hour and you are asking her out already? You are already breaking hearts all over camp just walking with her, I heard some nymphs crying just over there near the strawberry fields." It was Terry and Sarah could see Nick's face turn bright red.

"Terry, you are being a jerk," Nick replied and looked over his shoulder toward the strawberry field that the other boy had mentioned. Was Nick dating a nymph or something? She tried to look over in that direction too and only saw the training grounds where some kids were practicing sword fighting.

"I'm only joking, so Sarah you like our humble camp?" Terry strode over toward her and put his arm around her shoulder and gestured like the camp was the pride lands or something from the Lion King when Mufasa showed Simba the kingdom.

"It'll have to do for the summer, though I have no idea how I am expected to learn to sword fight and do archery," she sighed and stared at the camp before her. How was she going to adjust to all of this? All of these kids had years to begin their lives at this camp and they are all so different from everything that she has ever known. At her school the kids all had done something to get sent their by their rich parents or by the state. It was either a hit or a miss when it came to making friends, which is why she didn't have any. She spent her time studying and she was smart and took classes at Columbia and they hated her.

"Don't worry you've already got Izzy, Nick and myself as friends and we are like the best teachers in the entire camp." Sarah tried not to visibly display her feelings at the word friends, she had them before her dad moved and sent her to a new school. In fact she wasn't quite sure how she felt, it was like being happy and sad at the same time and she didn't know what to do with that.

"Uh, thanks," that was all she could spurt out. Stupid Sarah, she thought mentally slapping herself in the face. She continued to walk with Nick who was no longer bright red and was talking about the dining pavilion.

"So because you are the only one in cabin 21 you are going to get a whole table to yourself. But the food is really good and you can have whatever you want to drink." Nick spoke narrating and pointing to the one table down at the end of the pavilion that seemed to be by itself. That was to be her table; she would have to sit there for all her meals for the rest of the summer.

"Over there are is the fire pit, we all meet there after our evening competitions and my cabin leads a sing along." Terry leaned over and whispered in her ear. "By the way cabin 21 means you aren't my sister, if you were wondering." Sarah felt her face go red at his warm breath on her ear and she looked over at the climbing wall that Nick was talking about. She could practically feel Terry laughing at her reaction. What was wrong with her? She was never this shy before, why was this boy any different?

Sarah wiggled out from under Terry's arm and walked a little faster now next to Nick. She was not going to fawn all over the other boy like some stupid naïve girl, she was far too smart for that and plus Terry seemed like the type of boy who rarely was told no. Nick was explaining that if you failed to reach the top of the rock wall you would get lava poured onto you. Just another dangerous activity that apparently was normal here. Could that be something that she was seriously expected to be able to do?

"So what does a typical day look like? Are there legit camp activities?"

"Well there's 3 meals a day, weapons training, Greek lessons, field work, bonding time and free time," Nick said calmly and now the three of them stood in the center of a square surrounded by large cabins. Sarah stared at them all trying to figure out which one would be hers. "This is where all the cabins are. Those two right there are Zeus and Hera. They are empty right now, the big three rarely have children and Hera is the goddess of marriage so she isn't exactly the type to go off and have children. That is Hades, it is also empty and Artemis is empty too since none of the Hunters are here. But now that you are here all the cabins that have been built have a camper in it. Cabin 21 is over there diagonal from Dionysus cabin and right next to the Hecate cabin."

Sarah stared at the building it was made of a pale green stone with a midnight black roof. If she had to describe the cabin she would say that it looked like midnight had fallen onto a meadow. Or maybe it was much more beautiful than that, this was how her room had been before she was forced out of her apartment. Dark colors from her brief emo stage and then the bright colors that looked like flowers from when she was younger. It felt like home and yet this wasn't her home, she was only seeing the building for the first time in her life.

"I've always thought it looked really fluffy," Terry commented as her faced the cabin looking up at it.

"Didn't ask your opinion," Sarah responded walking toward the door and Nick laughed from behind her. "Am I supposed to go in or is there more of the tour?" Sarah turned around to face the boys.

"You can go in; one of us will come and get you later for dinner at the pavilion. You should probably relax; it's been a long day."Nick gave Sarah a reassuring smile and Terry winked before the two boys walked away. She heard the boys laughing and Nick scolding Terry before opening the door to her…her cabin. The thought seemed strange. Sarah flicked on a light switch and looked around. It was gorgeous. The walls had hand painted flowers on them and there was a little nook that was surrounded by windows and it was filled with chairs for lounging. Away from that area of the cabin were two beds, when they built this cabin they must not have had high hopes for kids to be living in here. It was quaint and Sarah concluded that she liked it as she laid her back onto the bed. Maybe she could get used to this place.

* * *

Chiron was pacing the porch of the Great House when Nick had rounded the bend past the training grounds. He had taken a longer way back from the cabins attempting to process what had just happened. The girl, Sarah, was here and that meant that it was happening now. The prophecy was going to have to be fulfilled and he was going to be a part of it. He looked up now Chiron had stopped pacing and was staring at him.

"It is her isn't it? Sarah is the only daughter of Persephone at the camp and I am well what I am," Nick tried not sound worried, but this meant a quest and they were all sorts of danger. He did not do so well when it came to dangerous situations.

"Well we can't be sure until the Oracle herself tells her the prophecy," Chiron said calmly, "but I do think it is highly likely to be her."

"Well then there have to be three others that have to go. The prophecy said five shall depart and who are the others that are going to come with us? And she needs a lot of training too," Nick spoke quickly trying to hide his nerves. Here he was the son of Athena and he couldn't even be rational about the thought of going on a quest. He was a coward, too scared to leave the comfort of the camp.

"Nick you should go work on some translations back at your cabin. I will discuss this with Mr. D and we will speak to you later." Nick nodded his head and began to turn around. "And Nick if you could send a few of your more responsible siblings to the Demeter house, some of the Hermes children decided to play a prank on them and they need help."

"Of course." Nick turned away from the Great House and continued toward the cabins. From here he could see smoke rising from the Demeter house and wondered who had planned this prank. Izzy had been helping teach sword fighting techniques to her youngest siblings before while he was giving Sarah a tour. She was the best teacher for sword fighting in the camp and was probably the most feared when it came to that weapon. Terry could shoot a target from great distances with his bow, but Nick all he could do was read old books and translate. Izzy and Terry may be his best friends but before that they were each other's best friend.

It must have been Zach who had led the prank against the Demeter cabin. He was always doing things like that to make the other kids in the Hermes cabin like him. Izzy was probably freaking out right now. Nick thought about knocking on the door of cabin 11 to check on her but as he looked over Terry was walking in. Terry could handle Izzy, besides Nick had to get kids to go help Demeter and do some more translations for Chiron. Nick continued to walk towards his cabin.

"Hey Nick, I translated another five lines of the Iliad this morning. Can you look over it with me today?" Nick looked over it was young camper from the Nike cabin. The girl ran toward him holding a piece of paper probably her translation.

"Yeah, why don't you go get a few others who at around the same line as you and we will translate in the theater." The girl smiled and bounded off toward her cabin yelling about the translation session. Nick continued until he reached Cabin 6 and walked inside with a sigh, he looked around to see who was inside. Stephanie and Joey, two campers a year younger than him were attempting to build a miniature Pantheon in the corner, it seemed to be failing and they probably needed a break or a different architectural job.

"Stephanie, Joey do you think you guys could take a break from that and help out the Demeter cabin? Some Hermes kids thought it would be funny set their rooftop garden on fire," Nick looked at the two who had stopped furiously scribbling notes on their blueprint.

"Yeah, of course we can Nick. We probably need a break from this project anyway," Stephanie jumped out of her chair and grabbed a notepad.

"I'll go get a few Hephaestus kids to help do some of the rebuilding." Joey added and grabbed his own notebook. Nick watched them race out the door, luckily those two had the best architectural abilities out of the entire cabin and could get the Demeter cabin back to shape before dinner.

"Good luck," Nick yelled out the door but they were already far away. He closed the door and crossed the cabin to his desk. It was a mess, papers everywhere and everything just seemed to close in around him, he was panicking. He had smiled and joked around before with the girl and Terry, but she had just waltzed right into Camp Half Blood and possibly killed him. Terry and Izzy didn't know about the prophecy, heck he only knew because Chiron was almost certain that he was referenced in it. It wasn't fair. Although he didn't even know much of the prophecy only the first line and the one he was referenced in, he knew it was bad. The way Chiron had told him two summers ago, it was as if Chiron was basically saying oh by the way when a daughter of Persephone gets here you are going to go on a quest and die.

Every time a new camper joined the Athena cabin he always asked about their parents, but none were like him. All of them grew up with a father, but Nick was the only son of Athena with another mother. And not a step mother, an actual biological mother, if you could call any child of Athena a biological child. Nick had been holding out for another kid like him but none ever came, so instead he began to hope that maybe the daughter of Persephone wouldn't show while he was at camp. Maybe she would be there for some other son of Athena to deal with and Nick could get away with never having to go on a quest. Nervously he twisted a bead on his necklace; it wasn't any use trying to avoid this now he decided.

Nick quickly grabbed his copy of the Iliad and turned towards the door. He had some young campers to teach, if he was going to die later this summer he had to at least teach these kids the proper way to read one of the best pieces of literature ever written.

* * *

Isabelle Marks was a force to be reckoned with and when she crossed the cabin to face her younger brother she could sense the fear that filled the room. She looked over at Terry who only looked forward at the boys; he obviously was a little worried about her temper. Well they should be worried, they all should be worried.

"Who in the name of Zeus thought it was a good idea to set the garden on fire? Honestly do you have any sense? It is a rooftop garden you idiot, you could have burned their cabin down. Where do you think they would sleep if their cabin burnt down? Our cabin because that is what our cabin does, and you tried to burn down their cabin so I don't think any of them would be particularly nice to us. Also what kind of prank is lighting something on fire. That is so uncreative. I thought I taught you better," she heard a nervous flicker of laughter from some of the other boys. Okay so she had some people on her side.

"But your last prank wasn't even funny," Zach spoke this time and the room fell silent once again.

"So replacing the grapes from the Dionysus with raisins isn't funny? Oh no, especially since I didn't set their cabin on fire while doing it. I am obviously so un-original it must be so odious for you to witness," Izzy drawled on lazily glaring at her younger brother. "Zach, you and I should have a quick chat outside, like right now."

She turned on her heel and walked past the others, she stopped in front of Terry who was attempting give her a sympathetic look but instead he just looked like his typical obnoxious jerk self. "I'll be like two minutes, make sure there isn't a coup while I am gone. Maybe play a board game with them or something to take their mind off the fact that I am going to be restraining myself from killing Zach."

"Enjoy yourself. Oh and remember there are a lot of people outside that can see you if you do decided to commit murder, meaning lots and lots of witnesses." He smirked and Izzy dramatically turned away from him earning a laugh on his part. She powered toward the door meeting the obnoxious little brat of a brother that stood before her. He was smiling, doing that oh so innocent look that all of the kids in the Hermes cabin had down pat. But it wasn't going to work on her; she had mastered that look before Zach had even arrived at Camp Half-Blood. Heck she had probably master that look before he was even born.

"I truly have no idea why on earth what I did was so wrong as to warrant you yelling at me," Zach spoke choosing his words carefully, so the annoying little Athena girl who walked by would swoon at the vocabulary.

"You set the Demeter house on fire, when did you become such a pyro?"

"I am no pyro that is offensive. I am just a connoisseur of brilliant pranks and that my dear sister was one of the best pranks preformed in my entire time at Camp Half Blood."

"Excuse me two summers ago," Izzy pulled on his necklace finding the right bead and she smiled triumphantly at the green bead. Zach's face went a little red.

"Yeah but that is casual pranking, you never do anything dangerous. And we all want to have some excitement in our pranks, but you always shoot them down saying that they are not safe or are not practical. We just want to prank it does not have to be practical."

"Honestly, can you hear yourself? I have never said that you can't do pranks because they are not practical. First off I don't talk like that and secondly why would I want you to prank someone with something that would not affect them? We all know one of the first rules of the Hermes pranking hand book is to get them where it will hurt the most." Izzy sighed and looked around the cabins area. Some Athena kids, it looked like Stephanie and Joey, Nick's two assistants were on the Demeter roof with James the head of the Hephaestus cabin rebuilding while the Demeter kids were trying not to cry.

"I wanted to do something memorable," Zach muttered. "You got a whole bead summarizing the summer for your prank when you were my age. I want a bead."

"Well maybe this could have been your summer if you didn't ruin it with a prank like this. Plus I've heard a rumor that one of the Aphrodite girls was going to request to see the Oracle for a quest so that would probably be the defining thing about this summer."

"Oh gods, which Aphrodite girl? And who would she bring?"

"I heard that it was Anna or maybe Maya, I wasn't quite sure. Whichever one of them it is they are going to need someone who actually knows how to use a weapon," Izzy leaned against the cabin now and looked over at the very interested Zach. It was easy to sway him, just make him feel a little guilty and then change the subject, worked like a charm all the time. Maybe her tactics did not resolve the problems and Zach would do something aggravating again but it worked to get him off of her back for now.

"Oh wow, that would be worse than your friend Nick going on a quest. He would just be all like uh books and mythology and my nymph girlfriend and oh no you are translating Sophocles wrong." Zach made a face and attempted to talk like Nick. Izzy wanted to punch him in the face but that creepy girl from the Hecate cabin was staring at them so she figured maybe punching her brother in the face with a witness was not a good idea.

"You do realize Nick is one of my best friends, dork."

"Oh I am so sorry for you. How does he have time for friends with all the reading he does and the nymph that follows him around?" She tried to remain calm, she really tried but Zach kept bringing up Sage and Nick and it was tiring.

"You should go inside so that our brothers are sure that you are alive and send Terry out here," Izzy shooed him away. "Oh and tell everyone that it is Maya going on the quest because I am pretty sure it is Anna now that I think of it and she will be super angry to hear that Maya wants a quest now."

"Great idea," Zach replied excitedly and hurried inside. Izzy shuffled against the wall of the cabin further down until she sat on the ground leaning back. That kid was going to be the death of her if she didn't get control soon. It was her second summer as head counselor and Zach was just itching to take control in every way possible. He would do all of these stupid pranks and then would force her to yell at him in front of the other kids so she seemed like a killjoy. It was devious, he would be a good counselor someday but that was not today. Plus he had a habit of bringing up Nick and Sage at the worst times.

"So I hear Maya from Aphrodite is planning on going on a quest," Terry's voice came from her left but Izzy did not even move her head. "I am certain we heard earlier that it was Anna who wanted the quest."

"All good lies have a little truth in them, there is an Aphrodite girl who wants a quest and her name ends in a," Izzy added light heartedly earning another laugh from her friend.

"I see Zach is still alive, I am so very proud of you for not impaling him with a sword even if he deserved it."

"Thanks I try really hard," Izzy laughed as he slid down on the ground next to her. She looked over at her friend; he was looking forward at the other cabins in a sort of contemplative state. He was not the type ever to look so serious.

"Terrence what is wrong?" He turned his head and looked at her for a second Izzy thought she could see him deciding whether or not he should tell her.

"It is that new girl, the one you found earlier. Something about her seems different, you know."

"Well she is sixteen and managed to make it that long in the world without being found by monsters until today."

"Oh and she is in Cabin 21. That is why you do not get another girl in your cabin with you even for a night." Izzy stared at him in disbelief. The girl was in Cabin 21, never in all their years of being at Camp Half Blood had their ever been anyone ever in Cabin 21. It was just like the Hera cabin, empty never used like ever.

"Well that is certainly different. What about her is making you seem so interested? You are after all notorious with your ladies man reputation around these hills," Izzy bumped her shoulder against his playfully. This conversation felt serious and Izzy didn't quite like serious all that much.

"Come on Izzy, don't you think something is up? I mean Nick was acting all weird with the girl and then Chiron was pacing. It just seems, I don't know not normal."

"Terrence since when in our lives has anything been normal?"

"I get that but I mean Chiron was pacing. That is a strange sight to see a centaur pacing on a porch and it all because if that girl, Sarah. I just wish I knew why those two were acting so strange."

"Well Nick is over there with those kids. We can always go and ask him instead of trying to come up with ideas on our own." She looked over at Terry and watched as his eyes widened at the suggestion. "I know why didn't you think of it earlier? The world may never know. So get your butt up off that grass soldier." He jumped up and turned to look at her. "Well I am not planning on using energy to get up so you need to help me." Terry laughed and extended his hand for her to grab. He pulled her up off the floor with ease.

"Race ya," he smiled and took off running toward the theater where Nick sat with kids circling him, it was kind of sweet how all the younger kids looked up to him for guidance in things like translations and mythology. She was never great at that aspect of being a demigod, fighting and things of that nature came easily but not to Nick he was gifted in the learned aspects.

"Cheater," Izzy called smiling running after Terry. She could feel her braid bouncing against her back and the breeze that came from going at such a fast pace cooled her down a little. "Terrence you are insufferable." He laughed from ahead of her, she could see a few of the kids in Nick's little class watching her and Terry. Izzy smiled and waved at one of them whose face flushed red before looking down at their paper. She was inching closer to Terry now, closer, closer and, "piggyback ride." She said as she hopped up onto the boy's back.

"Golly Iz, you should probably cut back on the mid afternoon snacks." He said slowing his pace as they approached the group.

"Hey kids would you mind if we borrowed Nick for a minute?" Izzy called at the group of studious workers. Nick looked at the two kids, his brow furrowed as if he had been deep in thought before they had rudely interrupted. A few of the kids mumbled no's and one even muttered a "thank Zeus."

Izzy hopped off of Terry's back and walked toward Nick, Terry in following. The three moved away from the other kids who were now chattering away.

"What is it guys?" Nick looked back and forth between his two best friends angrily.

"Sorry to interrupt your studies oh wise one, but Terrence has a question for you," Izzy spat out, she hated Nick's attitude sometimes. He was such a stickler for the rules and if Olympus forbid someone interrupted him doing work he would act like a little kid who didn't get their way.

"Then maybe Terry should be asking me his question."

"You are so aggravating sometimes Nicholas," Izzy looked at the boy angrily. "It must be so difficult being the smart one. You are such a saint putting up with Terrence and me, oh no wonder Chiron looks to you like his assistant."

"Come on Iz, he was just doing something and we interrupted," Terry like always was trying to make peace between his two bickering friends. Nick had to be an inconsiderate jerk and Iz would get annoyed and yell. It was a vicious cycle and it was just about to get into full swing again.

"See at least Terry is reasonable. You are so stubborn. He wants to be called Terry; you cannot seem to let him get what he wants. I must be stupid to think that you would give me any respect, ever." Nick looked over her head at the kids who were watching the fight excitedly.

"Just ask him the question and let us get on with our lives, Terrence." Izzy turned around from Nick, she may be able to win whenever she fought with Zach but Nick was a totally different ballgame. She held in a sigh, he was always so high and mighty compared to the rest of them. What did he think? He has all the little kids excited about their translations and their mythology, so what she gets them all way more excited during training sessions. Wasn't a compliment about your sword fighting technique much better than translating some stupid passage in the Odyssey?

"So uh Nick I was wondering what was up with the Sarah girl?" Terry spoke and Izzy almost laughed, he sounded like he was asking if she had a boyfriend back home or something. What an idiot.

"What do you mean? Are you trying to ask her out Terry?" Nick's tone held a little confusion and Izzy actually let out a huff because he had thought the exact same thing as her. She looked over at the boys and saw Nick staring at her. He was so annoying; he and that stupid nymph are perfect for each other. The both got on her nerves like it was their job and neither of them could stinking leave her alone. His cardigan was also so obnoxious. It is June, who wears a cardigan in June?

"No, I mean like she is causing you and Chiron to have like double hernias or something. What is the deal?" Izzy looked over her shoulder and saw Nick's face go pale; oh this had to be good. He met her eyes and nodded slightly for her to turn around, she complied this had to be serious.

"Well uh you see," he stuttered. The great Nick Marshall stuttered. "There is a prophecy and well it involves her and me."

"What?" Izzy asked dumbstruck. Nick knew about a prophecy, on that he was involved in and he didn't even tell his best friends.

"I said that there is a prophecy," he started to say.

"Yeah, yeah we heard that but seriously what? Do you know anything about the prophecy?" Terry butted in; the two unsuspecting friends stared at the supposed genius.

"I just know that it mentions a daughter of Persephone and that five people go on the quest and that one of them will be me. I know terrifying, how could I survive on a quest? Put me with Sarah and we are just two of the best fighters in camp, the nerd and the new girl. Sounds like a sitcom, ugh I am rambling and I am nervous and I had a breakdown before." Terry walked over to the other boy and gave him a hug.

"Don't worry bro; hey if there are five people going maybe you can convince her to take a good fighter along."

"Shut up Terrence and just hug him," Izzy spoke now and hugged Nick. "Just because I am hugging you I have not forgiven you for being a jerk." Nick laughed and wrapped his arms around her too.

"Awwww," a few of the kids behind them cooed. The three friends all turned and looked at the kids who quickly realized their mistake and started running.

"I'll take that half, Izzy and Nick you get those ones," Terry shouted orders at the group and took off chasing a group of the kids.

"Well Nicholas, shall we?" Izzy turned to the boy who adjusted his cardigan awkwardly. He did everything awkwardly it was kind of endearing. He looked at her nervously like she would whip out her sword and attack him right there if he chose not to join them.

"I probably should clean up all the mess that they left," Nick muttered and Izzy almost whipped out her sword.

"Come on Nick, live a little." She grabbed his hand and pulled him forward running toward a group of kids hiding in the strawberry fields. He laughed and continued in pursuit holding onto her hand attempting to keep up.

"Could you slow down a bit, not all of us are track runners."

"Well I'd ask the same thing of you if we were doing something academic, Mr. number one in his class," Izzy retorted though she slowed down a bit. It was no fun if she was going to drag Nick the entire time.

"Thanks for that. Now where are those kids, ruining a perfectly good moment between friends is a crime in this establishment." He looked around scanning the area for the kids but the fields were now being worked by a group of other campers.

"Frankly I have no idea," she laughed and flopped onto the ground. Izzy tended to sit on the grass a lot it was those little quirks about her that only a good friend cared to notice.

"So what do you think about this whole quest thing?" Nick carefully placed himself on the ground next to her.

"I think that you are going to be an excellent quest goer, but you are going to need some extra training time." Izzy looked over at the boy who seemed surprised.

"What if she picks you or Terry to go on the quest?"

"Then we would go on the quest, that doesn't impact the fact that you need to train Nick. You are still in my intermediate level sword fighting class. I would think that you would want to work with Chiron in the advanced class with kids who are closer to your age."

"I just don't quite like fighting, it makes me uncomfortable."

"We all have to do things that make us uncomfortable, we are teenagers."

"Yeah, I don't see you complaining about the Plato that you've been translating."

"Because I embrace these things, you love the academic part of being a demigod but you cringe at the other part. We all have ADHD and you somehow control yours to the point that you have no desire to do anything."

"I used to take medication, back at home. My mom knew that I was supposed to have ADHD; I used to have it really bad. Like schools would threaten to kick me out, even though I was smarter than every kid there. She took me to a doctor really young and I was on Ritalin for a long time, eventually I just kind of forgot about my ADHD."

"And now do you still suppress your demigod nature?" Izzy met his eyes and saw how upset he looked. This obviously was a touchy subject; she shifted closer to the boy and put her hand on his.

"Not so much anymore, but I try to take my medicine so my mom doesn't get upset," he looked down put held onto her hand.

"Your other mom, how does she feel?"

"I wouldn't know," he sighed looking over at her. They were silent for a minute just watching the other and trying to process what was happening. Izzy felt a range of emotions and the only thing she was certain of was that she felt upset too and was really confused as to how she felt with Nick holding her hand and playing with her fingers like he was.

"Hey you two, look what I have." A voice pulled Nick and Izzy out of their own minds and looked over at Terry who held two kids by their orange shirts. "I found the spies."

"Please put us down," one of the kids pleaded.

"We are sorry," the other added.

"I think you should let them go, Terrence. No need to traumatize the young-uns anymore than you already have with your daily shirtless and tight short wearing workouts every morning." Izzy spoke calmly and Terry's face scrunched up in anger.

"Fine," he dropped the two kids who said their thanks before running away again.

"Why on earth do you do that every morning though Terry? It is kind of frightening." Nick laughed and Izzy leaned back against him joining in the laughter.

"You guys are obviously getting along again. I prefer it when you fight because I feel like I am always getting made fun of when you don't." Terry quipped but the other two kids continued to laugh.

"The red shorts are my favorite," Izzy laughed.

"No, but the purple ones bring out the color in his eyes," Nick added before the two began to fall backwards in a fit of shouts.

"I am glad that my workouts amuse the two of you, but it is almost time for dinner and I still have to gather my cabin up to make sure there is no mess."

"Buzz kill," Izzy said standing up. "I'll get Sarah from her cabin since her cabin is closest to mine." Terry's face fell a little; did he actually have a thing for new girl? Izzy looked at the boy carefully until her turned around and headed off toward his cabin.

"See you at dinner," Nick said awkwardly walking back to the theater where papers still laid around.

"Uh Nick," Izzy called and watch the boy turn around quickly, "I'm sorry about earlier, I was just a little stressed about the whole Zach lighting the Demeter cabin on fire."

"It's no big deal Izzy; I'm used to the temper now." He gave her a small smile and Izzy laughed sticking out her tongue. He continued down toward the theater while Izzy stood there watching, he could be so annoying at times but then he was just Nick. The same boy that she met on her first day of camp, he had just gotten there the day before and was equally as nervous as her. They had a whole month of just Izzy and Nick friendship before Terry arrived in July; then they become the inseparable three all living in cabin 11 until the last day of camp when they all got claimed. Her two best friends moved out and Izzy stayed. But now Nick was going to go on a quest and she was probably going to stay behind.

Gosh, this was Nick. Her Nick and he was going to go on a quest with this girl who has no idea anything about life as a demigod. Who was she to walk in and take her best friend away like that? Izzy sighed and kicked a rock in frustration and to think she volunteered to bring the new girl to dinner.

* * *

Sarah opened her eyes to a loud banging sound; she looked around at the barren cabin that she was in. It took a moment for her to snap back into reality and remember all that had happened today. It must be time for her to go to dinner.

"I'm coming," she yelled and the banging stopped but a loud sigh come from outside the door. Sarah rolled her eyes wondering who it was out there that seemed to be in such a tizzy. She grabbed a hoodie out of her suitcase, at least Mr. H prepared her a little for a whole summer at camp. The banging started up again and Sarah ran to the door opening it. It was Izzy and she looked well pissed off.

"Finally, what were you doing in there?" Izzy said angrily turning on her heel and walking. Sarah shut the door and hurried to catch up with the girl. What was with her it was only like 2 hours ago that she was acting like they were best friends and now she is acting like she hates her.

"I took a nap, you know super stressful day an all," Sarah added a smile in for good measure.

"Just follow me, I don't want to be late to dinner," Izzy spoke in clipped words. Sarah rolled her eyes; this girl was now suddenly just like all the other girls she went to school with way to protective of her little toys, in Izzy's case Nick and Terry.

"Are you mad at me?" Sarah just wanted some form of clarification.

"Why would you say that?" Izzy stopped and turned to look at her. She seemed genuinely curious, maybe this whole aggravated demeanor was just how she acted at times. Maybe she was like the daughter of some angry god or goddess that could explain the bipolar behavior.

"Uh well, you were all excited and nice before and now well you are acting like I kicked your dog or something."Sarah shrugged her shoulders and looked over at the other girl who started laughing.

"Is that a New Yorker expression? Kicked your dog or something, that is wicked clever," she continued laughing and started walking again. This girl's mood swings were kind of frightening, maybe it would be best is she didn't like her then there would be a lot less bipolarness.

"My dad used to say it when I was younger, are you sure you are okay?"

"I am fine, let's go get some dinner. I am starved, when everybody finds out about you it is going to be crazy. Plus I also kind of caused some drama in the Aphrodite house so they probably will be going crazier than everybody else. "

"Why would you do that, aren't you one of them?"

"Oh my goodness, why would you think I am in Aphrodite? That actually has to be the funniest thing you have ever said to be, even funnier than the dog thing. I am in Hermes cabin," the girl Izzy was laughing hysterically now.

"I just thought for some reason, Terry said something before," Sarah mumbled and looked over to the side.

"No, you should never listen to the things that come out of Terrence's mouth. He maybe in Apollo but his sense of humor fits in with my brothers. So that is the dinning pavilion and I recommend you sit down calmly and try to avoid people who look at you unless it is like myself, Terrence or Nick because everyone else is annoying. Well actually some people are tolerable, but not that table or that table," she started pointing at people in specifics and explaining how they were superficial or some nonsense but Sarah just took in her surroundings.

The dining pavilion was huge; an equal number of tables as there were cabins at the camp and at almost every single one of them was filled with chatting kids. A few groups stopped their conversations and started pointing at her; she hated being pointed at especially by like thirteen year olds.  
"That is your table, whatever you want to drink will appear in the goblet and the food is always good. Are you a vegetarian?" Izzy question quickly and Sarah shook her head, "then eat the chicken it is amazing. " Izzy laughed as she walked away and strode over to a table filled with boys who all seemed eager to talk to her about something. Sarah watched as all the kids at her table laughed quite suddenly and looked excitedly at another table which she guessed was the Aphrodite table because there seemed to be tension and Sarah said she caused some there

Sarah glanced down at her the food set in front of her; it was chicken like Izzy had said and some cheese and bread on the plate. Carefully Sarah grabbed a fork and looked again at her food, this was all so strange.

"Psst," a voice called and she looked over her shoulder. A girl with red curly hair sat on the edge of the table next to her, there were about three other kids at her table but none of them were talking to the red haired girl.

"What?" Sarah asked nervously looking around, there were kids getting up to walk over to a massive fire.

"You have to give an offering to the gods before you can eat," the girl said grabbing some of the food off of the table in front of her. "Grab some food and follow me." Sarah made a plate throwing some of the food onto it and followed in suit of the girl with the red hair. She ignored all the stares and just walked watching the girl in front of her carefully. The girl dropped the food from her plate into the fire and turned around facing her.

"Just drop it," Sarah asked and the girl winked before walking away. Way to help, she almost said but she dropped the food into the fire quickly so people would stop watching her. She looked up and saw Chiron giving her an annoyingly sympathetic smile; it was like everyone thought she was a charity project. A tall girl with blonde hair that looked like a surfer stood up behind her.

"Hi, I'm Camille," she smiled and perkily dropped her food into the fire.

"Oh um I am Sarah, I am going to go eat now." The blonde girl looked offended and stomped over to her table while Sarah hurried back to her seat.

"Nice job, way to piss off the only big three kid here on your first night." The girl with the red hair said looking at Sarah with a wink. Gosh who was this girl? It was getting creepy and strange, everyone here was a little strange but this girl seemed to top the crazy list.

"What, who was she? Is she like special or something?" Sarah asked and the other girl asked. "I am Sarah by the way."

"The big three are Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Camille over there is the only one of the big three kids at camp now. She is the daughter of Poseidon. There was a son of Hades here last year, Rory but he didn't come back this year." The girl with the red hair was gesturing to tables at the front of the pavilion where the surfer girl sat.

"And does that make them special because they are one of the 'big three's' children?" Sarah asked giving air quotes when she said the big three. It just seemed ridiculous, they were all children of Ancient Greek gods they were all freaking special.

"Well Camille likes to think so and some of the others treat her like she is but more people tend to respect your new friends as the leaders of the camp," the red haired girl who still wouldn't give up her name gestured toward the tables where Terry, Nick and Izzy sat. "I am Erika but you shouldn't worry about me. I am the camp freak show."

"Dang it, I wanted to be camp freak show," Sarah dramatically slapped the table and the red haired girl cracked a smile.

"You'll do well here, new girl." Erika smiled and turned to the other kids at her table saying something to them. Sarah looked at the goblet in front of her wondering what kind drink she could make appear. Water, but that was so boring. Club soda, no still boring. The most creative drink that she could think of and that would be what she would have. Green apple flavored Sprite that was it. She held her cup in her hands and watched the green colored liquid fill it. A small laugh escaped her and carefully Sarah sipped the drink. It was perfect exactly how she remembered it from those times with her dad when they would go get weird flavors for their sodas at the supermarket.

The rest of her meal went on uneventfully until two girls at the Aphrodite table began to lunge at one another and two boys grabbed them pulling them back. Izzy's entire table had then burst out into hysterics with Izzy in the middle gaining high fives from all the boys, it seemed like she was having the time of her life. All the tables had multiple kids except her and the girl Camille, but she didn't seem lonely in fact she was waving to and conversing with a boy who sat at the table next to her. No one else seemed really lonely; everyone had someone to talk to. Erika was nice but she wanted to talk to her siblings.

Dinner seemed to be ending as girls started to clean up plates from all of the different tables. Sarah watched as one of the girls approached her table.

"Are you done?" The girl had a clear and sweet voice, she seemed friendly Sarah turned to her with a smile and then a voice interrupted.

"Of course she is done," it was Izzy standing over her. She glared at the girl and put her hands onto Sarah's shoulder. "Come on let us leave Sage to tending to the dishes." Izzy pulled Sarah up and dragged her away from the table.

"Um why did you do that?" Sarah looked over her shoulder at the girl cleaning up her plate. Izzy continued to walk away from the dining pavilion.

"I don't like that stinking forest nymph," Izzy muttered and stopped waving at a little boy who was walking toward them. "Oh this is going to be adorable." Izzy said with a smile.

"Hello, I am Emmet Tierney," the boy said with a distinct southern twang as he held out his hand to Sarah. "And you are?"

"I am Sarah Gilwit." She said shaking and the boy brightened up with a smile.

"Izzy, you found Sarah this afternoon on Camp Half Blood Hill?" Izzy nodded and smiled widely at the boy. "Wow, I am stupefied that you are here for the first time and you are so much older than all of the newer kids."

"Yeah I have heard that I am pretty strange," Sarah said smiling, this kid was seriously too adorable for words.

"Well if you need any help with your training I have been told that I am a great teacher. After all fighting comes natural to me, son of Ares and all." The boy smiled at her and Izzy again, he tipped his head like a cowboy from old western movies before walking away.

"That was probably the cutest thing I have ever experienced," Sarah gushed turning to Izzy who was laughing.

"That is Emmet for you. He is from Georgia and is the nicest kid in the whole Ares cabin. They use him as their public relations guy, but the rest of us campers want to start a coup and make him their cabin leader. Also he has amazing aim with everything he tries," Izzy moved to go sit down near the sword fighting arena.

"How old is he?"

"Thirteen. That is pretty much the standard age for kids to get claimed by but Emmet was claimed on his first day when he was ten. It is no wonder he was claimed so soon, I have high hopes for the kid."

"So what typically happens now?"

"Well everyone is heading over here," she gestured to the sword fighting arena, "there is a competition going on. I won my match yesterday, but tonight there are two Aphrodite girls fighting each other and I am sure you witnessed the outburst during dinner they will be fighting again tonight but this time with swords."

"That sounds dangerous."

"Not really, they are both so unequipped to use a sword it will end up being a joke. Plus I specifically made sure they would be fighting each other and then made both of them think going on a quest was a good idea and then told everyone their plans. Hold the applause; I am a genius I know."

"Now, now Izzy it isn't polite to lie," Nick sat down next to Izzy and she pushed him on the shoulder. Sarah smiled, those two had that kind of playful friendship and it was nice to see actual friends compared to the people from her school.

"Come on, I am a genius for getting all of this to work." Izzy gave Nick a look as if saying, say I am wrong and I will cut your head off.

"Yeah a genius who is still stuck on the same passage in Oedipus," Nick replied smiling at Sarah. "I told you before that I teach Ancient Greek to the campers, but this girl cannot seem to grasp her tragedies."

"Maybe because I am an optimistic person and I hate tragedies."

"Optimism does not have anything to do with a Greek tragedy, they are about the flaws of mankind and their consequences," Sarah added and Nick smiled while Izzy huffed.

"Whatever, I can kick your butt in that arena any night."

"Well obviously I am still in your intermediate class," Nick retorted and Sarah watched Izzy's face get a little red.

"Shut up, I am a great teacher. Sarah, just so you know I am an amazing wonderful fantastic teacher and Nick is just lazy and does not like sword fighting."

"Okay I believe you on the teacher thing," Sarah put her arms up trying to signal neutrality between the two of them. "So uh why did you pick those two girls as the center of your elaborate scheme?"

"Well that one Maya," Izzy gestured to the girl in the arena wearing a hot pink set of what Sarah assumed was battle armor. "She decided it would be funny to lead on Avery," now Izzy gestured to tall African American boy standing near the arena laughing. "But Avery caught on and told me, I was all like seriously how can you tell she is leading you on. And I said I know she is Aphrodite and they think it is their duty to be mean to your house. He is in Hephaestus, but I mean come on and tell me that Avery is super attractive." Sarah looked over at the boy and nodded her head in agreement to Izzy.

"Yeah, very attractive," she spoke and heard a small huff come from Nick.

"Nick, shut up I am trying to tell a story. You shouldn't be huffing anyway, where is Sage anyway?" Nick glared at her and Izzy smiled with what seemed like satisfaction. "Anyway, so Avery was like I know that Maya is playing me and I was like okay no problem, prepare for some payback. He told me to go easy, but I am like no way when I prank I prank hardcore. And then I found my other target Anna when she told me to get out of her way because I was blocking her sun. No big deal I was only doing archery, who on earth sun bathes near an archery range? So yeah Maya and Anna are now going to try and rip each other's heads off for our entertainment, fun stuff right?"

"You don't have to say yes, you know. Izzy just has her own very unique sense of humor that we are forced to deal with on a daily basis." Nick gave the girl a hug for effect. Her face scrunched up in anger and Sarah tossed her head back laughing.

"Nicholas," she said with a warning tone.

"Isabelle."

"Oh that is it I am going to rip you limb from limb starting with your," she started to say but was interrupted by a figure approaching them. Sarah turned to see the tall blonde girl from dinner, Camille, standing in front of the group.

"Hello Izzy, Nick and uh Sally was it?" The girl handled the bratty persona well, especially for someone who was supposedly highly respected.

"You know her name is Sarah, Camille. And what's up did one of my brother's sink a canoe again?" Izzy looked at the girl with such a feeling of boredom that Sarah almost felt sorry for the other girl.

"Actually I just wanted to remind you that she is a new camper and you love traditions," Camille smirked with what Sarah assumed was confidence and walked away to get a closer view of the really intense fight going on in the arena.

"What was that all about?" Sarah asked uninterested as she watched the girl with the hot pink armor begin to rapidly and continuously try to stab the other girl in the purple armor in the chest. It seemed way too dangerous for the adults to allow but Chiron stood watch and was smiling. Gosh, this place was weird, she thought and then suddenly she was lifted into the air.

"Yeah about that," Nick's voice held an apologetic tone. "There is kind of a tradition here at Camp Half Blood."

"And?" Sarah asked as she was being hoisted higher in the air and more kids joined Izzy and Nick.

"LAKE TIME," a voice yelled and Sarah looked over seeing Terry standing on a bench. He smiled in her direction and then began to lead a charge of kids in her direction all of them abandoning the fight.

"Please tell me that this is not at all what I think it is."

"It is not at all what you think it is," Izzy replied holding onto her legs.

"Liar," Sarah spat back and the other girl laughed.

"I am a sucker for tradition," she replied giving a wistful sigh and the boy holding her other leg laughed. "Zach hold the leg up higher, we are going to throw her in a lake not drag her off into the woods."

"Yeah, please be a bit more courteous." Sarah replied as she felt a shift in people by her shoulder, her eyes looked over to see Terry.

"Thanks for that, I really want everybody to witness this humiliation."

"No problem new girl." Terry replied laughing. There was way too much laughing going on around her, it was annoying and aggravating and she did not want to be thrown into the lake. And since when was there a lake, she didn't remember that on the tour or maybe they purposely left it out because of this stupid tradition.

"Please don't throw me into the lake I uh… can't swim. Like major hydrophobic right here. Uh do you want to kill me?" Sarah started flailing now and the laughter just got louder. "You are all murderers, I hate water and it is night and ahhhh," she screamed as suddenly her body was being swung by the campers getting her closer and closer to the water.

"Have fun," someone, it sounded like Camille say as suddenly she flew into the air at a dangerously fast speed and then down toward the ice cold water. It was exactly what she thought it would feel like, cold and awful. But there was also a feeling of something else; this was what it meant to be included in their camp. She smiled and pushed herself up to the surface, as her head popped out of the water cheers erupted around her.

"Enjoy your swim?" Terry called from a dock that was next to the water, he held a towel and Sarah couldn't think of a time she was happier to see a fluffy piece of cotton. She swam toward the dock and pulled herself out of the water, Sarah looked down at her soaking wet clothes and noticed Terry was too. "Enjoying the view, don't worry nothing for you to be embarrassed about."

"Oh my gods, you are such a perv," Izzy squealed from behind Terry and Sarah laughed. "Here take the towel." She ripped the towel from Terry's hand and quickly handed it over to Sarah.

"Thanks Izzy," Sarah replied walking past Terry, if he was going to make sexist comments she might as well ignore him. She started to dry off her hair and watched the crowd begin to disperse around the camp.

"Why don't we go get you some new clothes and then meet up with everybody else for the bonfire?"Izzy suggested wrapping another towel around her; Sarah snuggled into the warmth it provided. Sarah pulled forward and headed down the dock back to the cabin area.

"Sorry bout that Miss Sarah, but it is a camp tradition. When I got thrown into the lake they thought they downright drowned me but I was only playin around," Emmet walked beside Sarah now. He was a cute little kid, the accent made everything he said just about a billion times more adorable. She cracked a smile for him through the shivering, it was really cold at night by the water and being soaking wet did not help at all with that.

"It is no big dealll," Sarah said shakily and her two companions gave her worried looks, Izzy from slightly above her and then Emmet from below. She tried to stand up properly and stop the shaking but it was cold and they were staring at her.

"Okay not good. Gosh we should have done this when it was still warm out. Stupid Camille," Izzy grumbled under her breath and began to hold Sarah up.

"I am going to get someone taller and stronger than myself to help you," Emmet said quickly running away from the two stopped girls.

"Don't ask Terry," Sarah added quietly between shivers. Emmet looked at her as if he wanted to question what brought that bout but he said nothing and continued to run through the crowd.

"Hey, you know Terrence is not all bad. He can just be a real prick sometimes and you do not deserve to be treated like that. He is like my best friend and I know that somewhere deep, deep, like real deep down maybe there is goodness to him that you will someday see." Izzy tried to up the mood and earned a small laugh from the shaking girl leaning on her.

"I brought Avery to help you Miss Sarah," Emmet's twang returned and Sarah tentatively looked over her shoulder to see the boy that Izzy had been talking about earlier. "I am going to keep talking to ya so that ya don't have a fainting fit and fall into a big ol heap."

"Nice to meet you Sarah, now Izzy where are we taking her?" The boy Avery held up her other shoulder moving her forward. Izzy shifted on the other side of her and began to move as well. Sarah watched as Emmet stood in front of her walking backwards, he tried to make goofy faces and she smiled at him.

"Cabin 21," Izzy said and she sensed a slight tension on the side where Avery stood. Sarah forgot for a moment just how weird her situation was, only kid in the entire camp whose mom was Persephone kind of a big deal or something. It was cold, really really cold and she was feeling tired and it was cold.

"Oh Mary, Joseph, Gabriel, and Peter she is lookin mighty bad," Emmet's voice cut her thoughts about how good it would be sleeping. Rude adorable kid, just rude.

"Why did you guys throw her in so late? Normally when it is early summer the throw happens in when there is a lot of daylight so the water is not awful." Avery questioned over her head. He was really tall, Sarah thought looking over at him, like a brick wall. She smiled at him and laughed.

"She is losin her marbles," Emmet said again and Sarah stared at him angrily.

"We…uh…I forgot about it. She was asleep and then I was mad about something and then I was telling her about how I am genius when it comes to pranking and it just did not feel like she was a new camper. So I forgot about the prank until stinking Camille slithers on up and starts to ruin my fun because Sarah dissed her during dinner. Which as a witness to was freaking amazing!"

"Thanks, I'll be here all summer." Sarah said with a smile and the three around her laughed. She smiled triumphantly. "See I am not that bad," she said before moving away from the two carrying her. It was only seconds before she stumbled again only to be caught by Izzy and Avery.

"Yeah you actually are in pretty bad shape," Avery spoke and they moved faster this time. "Are there clean clothes in her cabin?"

"I think so, Chiron probably had a few nymphs bring in her camp tee shirt and there is I think a suitcase of her clothes in there."

"Good, let us get her changed so we she can warm up near the bonfire later," Avery spoke and Sarah looked up and saw her cabin right in front of her. She was still cold and her cabin was still beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous, kind of on par with Terry in the attractive looking scale, which was a very high number on said scale but Terry was also very high up on the annoying jerk scale.

"Why don't you two wait outside," Izzy said addressing Avery and Emmet when they reached the door. "I'll help her change and then we can get to the bonfire." They nodded and Sarah was led into the comfort of her cabin. "Wow you have so much space in here, it is like so huge for just one little person. No offense or anything I am just generally a tall person and I should stop talking so much and help get you changed." Sarah nodded her head and lay on her back flopped onto the comfortable bed in the center of the room.

"I have a sweater in the bottom of that suitcase, I saw it before." Sarah rumbled through the suitcase carefully and pulled a comfortable looking green sweater.

"When did you pack this? It looks like you forgot to bring a lot of stuff with you. No socks," Izzy said flicking through the clothes before throwing the sweater to Sarah across the room. Sarah watched the other girl examine her clothes.

"I did not get to pack it. There are jeans somewhere near the shorts or maybe the coat. Is there a raincoat in there?" Sarah leaned forward on the bed and looked at the sweater. She shrugged off the tee shirt that she had been wearing and pulled the sweater over her head. Sarah stared at the shirt on the bed next to her. It had been thrown into a lake, traveled in a horse drawn carriage on the Long Island Expressway, fought a chimera in Central Park and that was all today.

"What?" Izzy asked turning to Sarah holding a pair of bright green running shorts, Sarah forgot that she owned those. "How did your bag get packed then?" Izzy stared at Sarah intently. Oh shoot, she was not supposed to mention Mr. H (Hades, oh wow that was terrifying). Okay how to play it off.

"My psycho roommate at my boarding school hated me; she would pack me a suitcase everyday trying to get me to leave. This morning I was almost flayed, it was quite scary. But then again the uh fire breathing lion goat in Central Park was also very scary. I have not had a good day," Sarah spoke really fast hoping Izzy would not pick up on the strangeness of her story.

"Oh my gods, you fought a chimera in Central Park?" Izzy squealed.

"Technically I was not in Central Park; I was on Central Park West the street." Sarah added and smiled with satisfaction that the other girl had not picked up on her blatantly horrid story or maybe she just ignored it. After all there was no denying Sarah had had an awful day and Izzy did start the throw Sarah in the lake ordeal.

"Wow that is just like totally crazy. Here are your jeans," Izzy said excitedly and threw a pair of jeans across the room. "Here are some new shoes and do you want the coat? We are going to the bonfire so it will be like super duper warm there."

"I will just take the shoes and what is the bonfire like? Do you guys tell like Ancient Greek scary stories or something?" Sarah wondered aloud and Izzy laughed wildly. Everything this other girl did had a wild and free-spiritedness about her.

"No, there is a lot of music and campfire songs. I have been trying to petition for smores or roasted marshmallows at least, but this camp is so stinking healthy they always say no."

"Oh so what kind of songs?" Sarah asked as she pulled on the pair of jeans Izzy threw to her before. "Kumbaya and the like?"

"You are on a roll tonight; I should throw you in a lake everyday if you are this funny. No, the Apollo cabin plays music and we all kind of just jam. Terry always tries to do remixes of like pop songs. I begged for him to remix Payphone on the lute. I should ask him to play that tonight, it is like so amazing."

"Oh that is actually a lot cooler than the image in my head." Sarah leaned down pulling the sneakers onto her feet; thankfully Mr. H had some sense in the packing of her bag.

"Yeah, it is typically like the highlight of Terry's day. Well unless he does like some super kick butt thing in the archery ranger or thinks he beat me in a combat training. By the way he never beats me in combat training, but that is just because I am naturally gifted in the art of the sword." Izzy said with a laugh.

"I used a sword today when I fought the uh chimera in the city today," Sarah said pausing for a moment from getting up. Izzy turned and looked at her confused. "Wait it is right here," Sarah ran back over to the shorts that she had been wearing before and reached into the pocket. It had been there earlier, she felt around and the pocket was empty. Oh shoot, did it fall out into the lake? Sarah pulled her hand back to her body and felt something weird in her jean pocket. She stuffed her hand into it and there was the hair clip. "Here," Sarah held out the hair clip and gripped it tightly. She and Izzy watched in awe as the simple hair clip became the same intricate broad sword from earlier that day.

"Holy shi…"Izzy began but there was a banging on the door and the two girls looked away from the sword for a moment.

"You do realize that Emmet and I are still out here and we want to go to the bonfire before it burns out," Avery yelled through the door in between loud knocks.

"Oh shut up Avery, we are stinking coming just take a chill pill." Izzy called back angrily and returned her gaze to the sword. "You do know that this is probably the coolest thing that I have ever seen right? How did you end up with this?"

"Well I was just standing on the street and saw the monster and well it freaked me out a lot. And no one around me was reacting to it and I had to do something. I think I was holding my hairclip and then it began to turn into this sword. So I was able to like attempt to fight the monster but then I was arrested." Sarah said gripping the sword tightly again there was a hair clip again. "How about we go and join everyone at the bonfire? I can explain more about the craziness that is my life tomorrow," Sarah suggested and the other girl nodded solemnly.

"Emmet would really like to go to the bonfire before he turns eighteen," Avery called again.

"I never actually said that," Emmet's voice carried through the room again and Sarah carefully placed the hair clip into her jean's pocket.

"Shall we?" She asked turning to the side and faced the other girl.

"We shall," Izzy smiled and held out her elbow. Sarah locked her arm within the other girl's and they walked out the door.

"Oh you two have been out here waiting the whole time?" Izzy asked dramatically sighing as Avery scoffed in mock anger. They all walked back toward the center of the camp away from Sarah's cabin and she liked the feeling. Avery and Izzy were dramatically insulting each other and Emmet was laughing with her at their antics.

"Izzy, how do you get away though with going to this camp?" Avery asked about something that had been brought up a moment before hand.

"I can do whatever I want, they just care that I train a bit and come back. Chiron lets me use the computer to check emails from my coach, but the issue is if I ever plan to compete in the Olympics." Izzy sighed. "My life is so dramatic, why did I ever choose to run track?"

"You could always skip camp for a year and win a gold medal?" Avery suggested and the other girl stopped dramatically.

"I could never do that," Izzy said. "Plus my chances at winning gold are so low it is laughable."

"I think you could win," Emmet piped in cheerfully.

"So I am assuming that you are a major track star," Sarah spoke and the boys laughed.

"Yeah, I kind of had an ESPN special about me last year. They say I am America's like golden child or some other strange thing. Fairly embarrassing, I know."

"Um that is so amazing. I am not exactly a follower of any athletic thing at all so I would not know anything about what ESPN is. But that is actually super cool," Sarah stared at the other girl in amazement. This camp had an apparent track star, a genius in Nick, the adorable southerner in the ever cute Emmet and who knows what else.

"It isn't really that cool. I literally spend all of my stinking time practicing during the year and my coach thinks that I should be home schooled and train twenty four seven. When he threatened to stop helping me train if I went to camp my mom basically slapped him in the face in front of my school's entire track team."

"Oh well I still have not athletic ability and you do so to me I can't fathom your life." Sarah replied smiling at the other girl.

"Chiron almost killed her too when he found out that she like competed in and got silver in a World Championship," Avery added and Izzy blushed.

"Thank goodness he doesn't watch TV because there is a certain special that you are quite lucky he has not and will never see," Emmet added.

"I really wish I watched ESPN now," Sarah piped in and the three watched as the other girl's face grew a brighter shade of red. They laughed at her and Izzy pushed Avery away from her. Sarah shuddered as a breeze blew by her and the other three stopped looking at her worriedly. "Guys it just got a little chilly I am not dying." She held out her hands in defense trying to show that she was stable enough to walk.

"Whatever you say your highness," Avery said and walked faster toward the bright orange light before them. "Terry already started to play. I bet him that he would never be able to re-arrange that song," he muttered angrily and hurried to join the kids in his cabin. Sarah nodded her head to the music, it was one of those songs that they constantly played on the radio all the time until it became utterly unbearable for anyone to hear but it sounded totally different now. She looked at Terry who had his brown eyes closed and grasped his lute, Sarah guessed, tightly moving to the music. It was enchanting; Sarah kept walking trying to get closer.

"Hey you might want to grab a seat; you probably don't want to end up in the water again." It was Izzy speaking and she grabbed Sarah's arm. Sarah looked around and noticed she had ended up ahead of Izzy closer to the edge, but she had just been watching Terry play. Her eyes scanned the area for the boy and there he was still in the center of all the other musicians playing music.

"Oh uh yeah. That plan didn't work out so well the first time I tried it." Sarah said faking a laugh and looked back at the fire and all the other campers.

"You sure you are okay?" Izzy's eyes looked worried for her and Sarah felt bad for lying but she can't exactly explain how somehow she had ended up far away from the campfire. Plus she had already lied to Izzy about everything else that happened today.

"Yeah, just a rough day." Izzy nodded understandingly and wrapped her arm around Sarah's shoulder and walked her toward the campfire. The two girls sat down on a log with another girl, who smiled at Izzy before going back to watching the musicians.

"Do they do this every night?" Sarah asked trying not to stare at Terry, she could feel him looking at her now and smiling. He had caught her looking but she was just watching him play music not admiring his physique, well maybe she was but mainly she was listening to the music.

"Yeah, the Apollo cabin usually leads things like this every night," the girl sitting next to Izzy said leaning forward and smiling at her. "I am Stephanie by the way. I am in the Athena cabin with Nick who you have already met." Stephanie moved to shake hands and her curly dark hair tumbled forward into her face, Sarah laughed and the other girl's pale cheeks got a little red behind the inkiness of her hair.

"It is nice to meet you, I'm Sarah," she replied shaking the other girl's hand and looked over again at Terry. He met her gaze and she looked away quickly, he was so rude.

"Pardon me but do you have a crush on Terry? If so the feelings seem mutual as you are both staring at each other," the girl Stephanie said and Izzy laughed loudly causing a few of the other kids around them to turn and glare angrily at them. "Oh my goodness I am so sorry if I am embarrassing you. I was just making an observation and wow I feel really awful right now we don't even know each other that well and I am just making assumptions about you." The girl got even brighter red and Izzy continued to laugh into her hand trying to not be too noticeable.

"Oh um it is fine," Sarah mumbled, she couldn't exactly deny what the other girl had said but she couldn't exactly agree with her so just ignoring it was always a good option. She looked down ignoring it worked in really super awkward conversation and this was an especially awkward conversation so now to ignore it. Sarah watched the musicians and in particular not Terry, she couldn't exactly do that not with Stephanie looking at her and trying not to burst from embarrassment. If she was someone else watching this situation going on they would probably laugh at the tension.

"You do know that he hasn't taken his off of you the entire night," Stephanie whispered and Sarah felt her face redden, boys made things awkward. "As an observer of Terrence's behavior I can inform you that this is quite different from the normal crush he tends to often get. But I am not like observing because I like him or anything," Stephanie said her face getting pink. "He is just a person that is so complex and interesting. Plus he is a bit of a player. Oh but if you like him then you should definitely go for it. Oh wow you and I barely know each other and you probably don't even know Terry that well too. I am an idiot sometimes."

"Stephanie, you are smarter than everyone else sitting here and you know it," Izzy piped in and comfortingly placer her hand on the girl's shoulder. "And you are giving our little newbie here a lot of great advice. I nominate you for Athena cabin counselor over Joey for when Nick eventually leaves or finally gets paid for being Chiron's personal assistant."

"Thanks, but Joey is a bit more of a leader than I am. He likes to talk to people and then there is me," Stephanie spoke her words dripping with displays of a low self esteem. Sarah wanted to give her reassurance but as the girl had just said they didn't know each other well and Izzy seemed to be doing a good job.

"Can you hear yourself talking? You have been talking to Sarah over here like you two have been girlfriends for your whole life and you are at a school dance or something. It is hysterical that you think that you are not a people person, you are so a people person you just psych yourself out and over think conversations and it is so adorable. It is a trait that Nick has too and look at how good of a job he does."

"Well, Nick is a different type of a person," Stephanie started to say and Izzy pushed her.

"Please stop it with this whole self-pitying thing and woman up Steph, you are amazing and don't let anyone ever even think to tell you different," Izzy spoke angrily and looked over at the other girl casting an embarrassed glance at Sarah. She tried to give a re-assuring smile and hoped that it might work. This girl wasn't exactly the type of girl that she felt confident that she could even attempt to reassure; maybe all of these demigods had a lot of issues like Nick told her earlier. It made a heck of a lot of sense; Sarah glanced over at the Apollo kids admiring the musical styling. She swayed a bit and then continued to look at all of the kids around her; everyone was either chatting with their friends who sat with them or watching the music. Her eyes scanned the crowd for Nick; she hadn't seen him since before she was being thrown into the lake. The girls who had been fighting earlier sat next to each other toward the back whispering excitedly and pointing at some guy sitting not that far from them. Emmet was sitting with a group of younger kids around his age and they mainly were watching the music or staring at the bonfire.

It seemed peaceful and Sarah relaxed, she tuned out the conversation that was occurring next to her and thought about her day. Everything that had happened seemed so unbelievable and yet it was all true. She was worried that maybe if she blinked everything would disappear and she'd be lying in bed back at her dorm room alone in the world. Yet here she was surrounded by people who actually liked her, it was strange being liked again. She was tolerable back at her school, the weird girl who thought she was better than everybody else because she was smart and tried to spend as much time away from the school as possible. How trying to get away from that school was deemed loserish, she would never know. She wasn't going to see them anymore, she was here at Camp Half-Blood and it felt comfortable.

"You seem to have established yourself well here, Miss Gilwit," a voice said next to Sarah and she turned to see Chiron. This was strange; did he talk to all of the kids on their first day like this?

"Well Izzy and Nick have been very welcoming," she replied flatly, still wondering why on earth he was singling her out like this.

"And Terry?" He asked her about Terry, what was this guy like an omnipotent all knowing deity? Actually Chiron was a mythological creature so maybe he was omnipotent; she cursed herself for forgetting the legends. And was he actually mythological now, since he is actually real. Could she be considered mythological? Weird, she thought and then remembered he asked her a question.

"Uh, yeah he has been welcoming too," Sarah said quietly as if she didn't want him to hear, with a quick glance over she saw him still leading kids in music no longer playing his lute but he was holding his hands up like some sort of conductor although he ruined the mood by laughing hysterically and making faces.

"He seemed to have taken to you very quickly. I have never before had Terry come up to me and ask to help someone with their training," Sarah stared at Chiron now, Terry want to help her personally with her training. Well she obviously needed help with training since apparently all demigods had to be trained, but he wanted to help her and he made sure it was okay for him to help her. That was sweet.

"I am just glad that people here seem to actually care about each other."

"Most of the time, though Capture the Flag gets very violent," Chiron said rather happily and Sarah wondered if this whole situation could get any stranger. "Well I should go stop Terry; it is time for everyone to return to their cabins now."

Sarah watched Chiron go up to the Apollo kids and stop their performance, a few kids groaned and someone yelled encore. Terry pulled up his lute and began to play 'Don't Stop Believen' but the glare coming from Chiron was something that could stop anyone from doing anything. He quickly stopped and sulked away from Chiron, toward her. Shoot, toward her. There Terry was approaching her, did he want to talk?

"Sorry about earlier with the whole towel thing, I shouldn't have embarrassed you like that," he gave her a genuine smile and Sarah felt her chest flutter a bit. "Can I walk you to your cabin?" Sarah nodded and followed him as they joined the path of campers descending into the cabin area.

"So I actually wanted to ask you something," Terry began to say and he nervously reached up ruffling his hair. It was so adorable; Sarah restrained herself from awing at the gesture.

"Okay," she spoke now and instantly hated the response she gave. It sounded too guarded, but shouldn't she be guarded. Maybe the way she said it she seemed unsure, but she was unsure. Why was she acting like this? It was aggravating.

"Well, you see tomorrow you are going to start training and I wanted to know if I could help you like you know get through the basics," even when Terry wasn't in his charmer state he was still able to make her feel the same way. This is what he had asked Chiron for permission to do; he made sure he had the okay from the responsible adult before even asking her. She may not know Terry very well but this did not seem like something that was done often

"That would be amazing," she replied stopping to give him a smile. He reciprocated the gesture but his smile was wider and it reminded her of a little kid who was given the biggest pack of crayons in Pre-K.

"So," he said quietly, the entire atmosphere was quiet. The campers were practically all in their respective cabins and here she was standing outside her cabin with Terry and she was smiling at him and he was smiling at her.

"What's your last name?" She sputtered out quickly breaking the moment or whatever that was.

"Barslov," he replied laughing. "Good night Miss Gilwit." He waved before turning around.

"Wait, how do you know my last name?"

"That's a secret I'll never tell."

"Wait did you just quote Gossip Girl at me?"

"Good night Sarah," he called over the silence of the camp and I believed him. It was a good night. It was actually a pretty darn great night.


End file.
